The National Rifle Association's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." At least that's true in the Western movies I've seen. Peace is restored after some shoot-out, where the guys in black hats are killed by the sheriff and brave townsfolk.

The problem in real life is that we can't so easily tell who is bad. Decent people, in the right setting, do stupid things with guns, like our two Utah neighborhood watch guys who shot at each other.

A better lesson from the movies: When an Old West town had a problem with guns, they banned guns from the town. Visitors checked their guns at the city limits.

I'm not for banning all guns. Everyone has a right to self-defense, and that means owning a gun. But there's a difference between a right to own a handgun and a right to own a weapon of mass murder that fires 45 bullets in 60 seconds.

Outlaw those, and use tax dollars to buy and destroy the existing semiautomatic guns.

Edward Jones

Salt Lake City

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